Justified Rant Against Hive? Or Was I Being Phished? Or Neither?

[DPinBucks]

Bear with me, it's a longish post.

You may know from another thread that I have recently discarded Hive heating products in favour of Honeywell (which are working pretty well, btw).

So as I don't like links with people I don't deal with lurking around cyberspace, I went on to the Hive website to get my account with them closed. There was no suitable link, so went onto Live Chat and got a promise to sort it out.

However, a few days later, I got an email from them; text as follows:

Good Morning Mr xxx,
Thank you for your call to Hive.

My name is Malcolm, I am a customer manager at the Hive Hub in Glasgow.

In order to completely delete an account/expunge the records we need a copy of one of the following:

•Birth Certificate
•Driving Licence
•Passport

As well as one of these documents:

Current utility bill e.g. Gas, Electricity
Council Tax bill
Bank/Store Card Statement
Other formal document providing your name & address

I am also compelled to advise that Centrica have an 8 Year Data Retention Policy, this means that some data may require to be kept for this period.

Reasons we may need to keep data:
•Legal obligations
•Tax records
•Financial Records
•Complaints

Alternatively, from here I can deactivate the Digital Account, place into permanent hibernation. This would mean that effectively the account would be a shell and absolutely no pre emptive contacts from Hive.
We also would remove information under GDPR policy of only retaining as long as completely necessary.

Should you wish me to deactivate please reply to this email.
To send the documentation for expunging the account please email [email protected].

I hope that this meets the expectations of your inquiry. I will leave this case open until close of business on Friday 10th September for your reply.

Kind Regards

Malcolm

To which I replied:

I have absolutely no intention of providing you with any personal documentation. It is certainly no business of yours. I didn’t give you any such details to set up the account, so why should I give them to close it? How could it possibly be of relevance to a central heating control system?

If you wish to deactivate instead, then do so, but please note:

• You must not communicate with me at any time for any reason using the account as a reference;
• You must unsubscribe me immediately from all relevant circulation lists;;
• I withdraw immediately all permissions, explicit or implied, for you to use any personal information which you have about me, for any reason and to any person whatsoever;
• In effect, the account must be reduced to a state as though it had never existed, including for Hive’s internal use.

I have had no response, but maybe that's because they're doing what I ask.

Although I imply this might be a phishing attempt, I'm sure it's legit. I did buy some stuff from them using my debit card, but I have no recollection of actually setting up an account.

Was I justified in getting so mad? Even if the account actually existed, I do not see how they could possibly need more info from me to close it than they used to open it.

Yes, I know. Life's too short. But sometimes it really gets to me.